Express yourself. It is later than you think.

A bonfire on my desk

It’s been raining since Thursday… the solar panels are starving and I haven’t been able to use my laptop, for fear of draining my batteries beyond recovery. Sometimes I think I have watched enough water fall from the sky to wash the world away.

No matter. I have been writing letters. Yes, those letters, the ones I’ll be mailing copies of, to the dozen brave first customers who came to my ETSY shop over the past two weeks.

But there have been other letters, besides. Friends, and strangers, will also be getting something in the post from me this February. It’s International Correspondence Writing Month (InCoWriMo) and, for 28 days, hundreds of people have pledged to write a letter (postcard, gift card…) a day. You can write to people you know, or you can pick some lucky ducky from the list of addresses submitted to the InCoWriMo page.

It isn’t cold, in Darwin…not even after 4 days of rain. But the soul craves warmth, possibly because the sun has been blotted out by cloud cover, and everything is shadowy and grey. So I built a bonfire on my desk.

I piled together some hand-marbled Himalayan paper, old Pantone swatches, polished bits of brass, postage stamps, gold inks, and one of my printed postcards. Set it alight with a sliver of sunlight that broke through the clouds, and stood back to enjoy the blaze.

P.S. I have finally settled on a name (yes, settled again…another name) and this time it’s for good…bought the domain (no website up yet) and everything: The Scarlet Letterbox.

I never got round to xmas cards/letters for 2017, so I’m writing a proper letter a week until they’re all done. I don’t think I can do a letter a day but I’m with you in the spirit of the idea. (Ahem, I’ve written one letter so far!) I’m going a bit stir crazy with the rain, and I do think it’s pretty cold, I have my hoodie on 🙂

Yay! It was so funny, I had already bought the domain name for Ink for Breakfast, only to find that it’s a tattoo outfit in LA with big web presence. Panic! GoDaddy graciously let me give the domain names back, and I took this one instead. So hard to come up with a good name *quickly*! And then, most are taken (as domain names). So lucky with this one.

This is so wonderful! I love seeing people write letters. I feel like it’s something that’s fading away as technology advances and changes some of cultural practices. I used to do one of those Reddit letter writing or postcard exchange opportunities and it was so great. I’m even making my students write letters in class. It’s a great practice! ❤

Thanks, Keji! It was a strange idea, but they’re the best sort! I had a gut feeling about it, so I took the leap. It’s true, none of us really writes letters, anymore, and yet we all respond to images of old-fashioned letters. It would be great to see a renaissance. Hopefully your students enjoy the experience…there are lots of websites with inspiration…try http://www.moreloveletters.com
xx Nat

Love love love that you are as excited as I am! First letter had a cold start, I was scared, and problems getting it printed…it’s okay, two pages of writing (so I just found out that an A4 sheet only holds 250 words…I am rarely that economical with words), but succeeding letters will be better. Bear with me.